Spreadsheet application programs may be utilized to create cross-tabular reports for summarizing data from a data source. For example, a data table in a spreadsheet may contain multiple individual records associated with product sales, such as the geographical region (e.g., North, South, East and West) a product was sold, the style of the product, the shipping date of the product, the number of product units sold, the price at which the product was sold, and the cost associated with manufacturing the product. A user wishing to summarize the number of product units sold in each of four the geographical regions by shipping date may utilize an application program to create a cross-tabular report which highlights the aforementioned information in a multidimensional chart.
Drawbacks with using current application programs to create cross-tabular reports however, is that the user experience requires two learning curves—one to understand what the cross-tabular feature of the application program does, and the other to learn how to manipulate and use the cross-tabular report feature. As a result, the user experience in utilizing current application programs to create cross-tabular reports is poor, especially for novice or casual users. It is with respect to these considerations and others that the various embodiments of the present invention have been made.